Help make the world a better place

[iwekani]

Hi folks
Well I have a rather complicated request for the group. I hope I will receive your help and support and thanks in advance for that.
I am working as a volunteer SME (Small Business Enterprises) in a remote village in East Africa and one of my recommendations to them is adopt IT not only to gain access on the vast information pool in the internet but also as a way to built their competitive edge. I am by the way a business major from Palatine IL. Networking knowledge level: 3/10..
The local SME cooperative just received a donation of 10 computers from a NGO. The challenge for me is to network these computers. What I want to do here is the following:
• Allow at the minimum each business unit to have access to the internet (there are 6 of them). We can have internet access via a local ISP at 64 kbps shared. But for each computer we will be charged $60/month.
• Implement a sort of interoffice e-mail
• Allow different users to share files, printers and others resources.

My questions to you all: What are my options? What do I have to take in consideration? What is the optimum solution? How do I go about implementing your suggested solutions (Steps by steps)? Can I create an Intranet and if so what do I need to do?

Thanks all for your suggestions and for making the world a better place.

PS: The computers are a mixture of old stuffs the following:
OS:
Windows 98 (7)
Windows 2000 Professional (1)
Windows XP home edition (2)

Average Amount of Ram: 128 MB
Processors: Pentium 2 3 and 4 - 300MHz been the slowest
Location: Old cement block house. Offices are spread in 7 different rooms


Gracias

[John Prophet]

Sounds pretty straighforward actually. The only thing I am not sure about is the 64k isp. Is that dial up? Because my first thought is, of course...hook a router to the isp's line...then from the router each of the computers can get to the internet. So that also makes me wonder about the $60 PER computer. Because a router should be able to split that line up to all the computers.

Anyway its pretty straightforward...each computer has a network card...usually the modern routers have 4 ports...and you can come of of any of those ports either straight to a comp or you can go to a hub or switch to further branch off for more computers.

So what I would do is "eyeball" where the comps are going to be physically sitting. If they are going to have one comp per room then you probably just take the router and also an 8 port switch and you put the router and switch together and you come from the switch and run the cat5 cable to each room. OR, you can put the switch or a hub anywhere in the building you need to put it. So for instance if you have 4 computers in one room you dont need 4 seperate cat5 runs back to the switch or router..instead you have one cat5 from the router and it comes into the room and you simply have a little switch or hub sitting there to split it off to each computer in the room.

Routers can be had for as low as $10 after rebates...or maybe $39 straight up and switches are even cheaper.

If for some reason you cant use a router (if that is a 64k dial up maybe) then the next best thing is to take one computer and put TWO network cards in it. One card goes to the isp..the other card goes to a switch which splits it out to the other computers. In other words you are making that one computer act like a router. Thats called "internet connection sharing" or 'ICS'

JP

[John Prophet]

Oh and of course either one of these setups allows the sharing of files, printers etc.

And im not really a networking guru but others can tell you how to do the interoffice email quite easily.

[JohnE.]

Old cement block house.

Does this mean running network cable would be difficult and/or costly? The prices on wireless routers and nic's have dropped considerably in the past year or so and may be a viable option. Perhaps a wireless network would work well in this situation?

[iwekani]

Thanks very much John. You sound like a real prophet and I have a clear picture of the scenario now. Running the cable will be challenge but it is doable. As far as wireless is concerned I am just wandering about the range and the security. My other concern is to figure out how to implement an interoffice mail system. Do I need a server for that? If so what hardware/software are required? Regarding the speed, the ISPs here use Unlicense radio signal to provide access to the internet. They have a way to implement the bandwidth 64 kbs been the smallest. Once you have the service at your premises they charge you by the # of MAC adresses. Sounds fuzzy?...It is a bit faster than dial up..
Thanks again